PPB December 2020

Karesa Wells In The Business Of Caring As a former ICU nurse, giving up has never been an option for Karesa Wells. She’s learned how to work and be proactive, even in emergency situations. When she opened her own distributorship five years ago, Wells’s determination to keep going and her tireless desire to care for others have served as the cornerstones of her business. by Kristina Valdez K aresa Wells never thought she would open her own business. For 10 years, Wells was saving lives as an ICU nurse. “I loved nursing,” she says. “I never thought I would leave it; this has been a totally different world.” When she needed a break from the stressful environment of health care and wanted something different, Wells left that career and began working with her father, Gary Estes, in his 30-year-old hat printing business. It was the second time Wells had worked alongside her dad—the first time was when she was 12 years old, and her father had just opened the business. “We started in a house, and I learned to print hats,” she says. “He would pay me 10 cents a hat, so I was a part of his production team at a very young age. That’s what introducedme to the industry.” Once Wells went back to work with her father, she began thinking of newways to grow the business, so her dad encouraged her to start her own company. “I had no intention of starting a business,” she says. “I was literally just going to work out of my house and try to get a few clients that I could take care of, and it has developed into something bigger.” Today, Wells is president and CEO of Blanchard, Oklahoma-based distributor Cross Country Specialty Advertising, a sister company to her father’s printing business. “All my clients that I started out with were from cold calls,” says Wells. “I have never had any sales training. I just dove in and started meeting people, calling people and getting appointments.” Partnering with clients tomake events and campaigns a success, she focuses on serving fiber energy companies—becoming an expert in this niche market, in addition to banks and credit unions, and clients in the technology industry. Wells says her commitment to building client relationships is what makes her business stand apart from competitors. “It’s important for me to know their pain points, their needs and goals or dreams,” she says. “I ammore about a relationship than selling an item.” Wells finds working with people the most enjoyable part of her job. “I love people. I love clients and building client relationships. I want to make sure this a great place for my employees to work and for my clients to know that Cross Country will take care of them,” she says. For Wells, starting and running her own business has been a new challenge. “It’s made me learn to appreciate when someone says they’ve started a business,” she says. “You don’t really understand until you’ve been there. The stress, the many hours you have to spend tomake it all work—it’s made me learn how to work hard to get what you want from yourself and fromothers.” The most challenging part of opening her company was not having clear guidance on what she needed tomake it successful. “Being an entrepreneur and not planning to be, there’s no person standing there telling you what you need for your business,” lenetstan / Shutterstock.com Photo credit: Brad Searcy Photography 86 | DECEMBER 2020 | CONNECT